Loud peacock brought Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison together

RANCHO PALOS VERDES – Larry Ellison said he met Steve Jobs because of a noisy peacock.

They were neighbors in Woodside at the time, and the peacock was a birthday present to Jobs from his girlfriend, Ellison recalled during a tribute to the late Apple co-founder Wednesday here at the annual D: All Things Digital.

“The peacock wandered over and woke me up,” Ellison said. He went over to complain and Jobs said he didn’t like the peacock either.

Ellison said Jobs told him he was going “to tell her you complained so much about the bird that we’ve got to get rid of it, but you’ve got to back me up.”

The Oracle CEO joined Pixar Animation Studios President Ed Catmull in the tribute to Jobs, who appeared at six of the 10 All Things Digital conferences, which are sponsored by the Wall Street Journal.

Ellison and Catmull shared some rare behind-the-scenes memories of the man they each knew for about a quarter century.

Ellison said Jobs would love to show him all the minute changes being made to a Pixar film, and would take him on a Sunday to a warehouse where Apple had constructed mockups of its now successful chain of stores.

“He had a single mindedness and attention to detail unlike anyone I have ever seen,” Ellison said. “He was a bit of a control freak. Working obsessively until he had a solution was what Steve was all about.”

Catmull said Jobs was not as controlling at Pixar, but wanted to know those who were working on the films were passionately sure about their ideas.

“He didn’t respect somebody if they didn’t have a point of view and pushed it hard,” he said.

Catmull said business leaders who try to model their careers after Jobs would likely fail.

“Trying to copy Steve means they’re going to stop at the surface,” he said. “He was truly unique.”